This invention relates to a process for placing, on respective surfaces of front and rear waist regions of a disposable wearing article both facing away from a wearer's body, a pair of indicator elements being visually recognizable from the exterior, respectively.
Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-54536A discloses a pull on-type disposable diaper including a patterned sheet and a process for making the same. This diaper comprises a liquid-pervious inner sheet lying on the side facing the wearer's body, a liquid-impervious outer sheet lying on the side facing away from the wearer's body and a liquid-absorbent core interposed between these sheets. This diaper has a front waist region, a rear waist region, a crotch region extending between these waist regions, a waist-opening and a pair of leg-openings. The patterned sheet being visually recognizable from the exterior of the diaper is attached to an inner surface of the outer sheet.
The process for making this diaper comprises the steps of joining the patterned sheet being smaller than the outer sheet to the inner surface of the outer sheet at a predetermined location, a step of joining the core to the inner surface of the outer sheet and joining the inner sheet onto the upper surface of the core. The process for making this diaper further comprises the steps of feeding, a plurality of the patterned sheets successively onto the inner surface of the outer sheet so as to be spaced one from another by a given dimension in the longitudinal direction of the outer sheet and joining the patterned sheets to the outer sheet by means of a hot melt adhesive.
According to the process for making the diaper as disclosed in the above-cited Publication, a plurality of the patterned sheets must be individually fed and joined to the inner surface of the outer sheet in each of the front and rear waist regions. Feeding and joining of the patterned sheets inevitably doubles time and labor and require additional devices as well as additional steps. Consequently, a manufacturing cost for the diaper correspondingly increases.